CNS STORY: Young U.S. rabbi, Catholic teacher in Rome build friendship, learning

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CATHOLICS-JEWS Oct-23-2007 (550 words) xxxi

Young U.S. rabbi, Catholic teacher in Rome build friendship, learning

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- A young rabbi and a young Catholic theology professor traveled together to Rome, hoping to learn more about Catholic-Jewish dialogue as they got to know each other better.

"I think it is time for a new generation to get involved and push dialogue," said Rabbi Peter Stein of Temple Sinai in Cranston, R.I.

He set off in search of a Catholic dialogue partner, one who was willing to travel to Rome with him to participate in an Oct. 21-24 conference on Catholic-Jewish relations designed for congregational leaders.

Arthur P. Urbano, who teaches theology at Dominican-run Providence College in Rhode Island, attended the conference as a representative of the Providence Diocese. A member of Holy Apostles Parish in Cranston, he expressed hope his parish and Rabbi Stein's congregation can launch a dialogue and joint social projects.

The October conference in Rome was sponsored by the New York-based Interreligious Information Center, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews.

Gunther Lawrence, the IIC head who organized the conference, told Catholic News Service: "It has been an unbelievable success. There has been great enthusiasm to expand this kind of dialogue," one focused not on official Catholic and Jewish representatives, but on local parishes and synagogues.

The 75 conference participants listened to experts in Catholic-Jewish dialogue, Vatican officials and each other. They also had a chance Oct. 22 to question Jerzy Kluger, the man who gained fame as Pope John Paul II's childhood Jewish friend.

"The friendship they had as real people is indicative of how Pope John Paul approached relations with Jews around the world," Urbano said.

Conference participants spent a lot of time "discussing the progress in Catholic-Jewish relations under John Paul and the hope that it will continue," he said.

Both Urbano and Rabbi Stein said that, while Pope Benedict XVI is continuing to promote the dialogue, they worry that new generations of Catholics and Jews do not see it as something necessary.

"We have lived only in a Vatican II world" with its condemnation of anti-Semitism and its recognition of the special relationship between Christians and Jews, the rabbi said. "Children today do not know a world where a pope has not visited a synagogue."

"The tolerance is there and the fellowship," but Catholics and Jews often do not know much about each other's teachings, rituals, values and way of life, the rabbi said.

Urbano said, "There has been a lot of progress and we do not want to leave it behind."

Jesuit-run Xavier University in Cincinnati sent six representatives to the conference, including a Catholic student and a Jewish student who were blogging about their experience.

Michael Loban, the Jewish student, posted the comments he made to the conference, including his view that "dialogue is not about trying to change the other side; it is about challenging your own views, taking in what others have to offer and using it to become wiser, to become a stronger, better character."

Maggie Meyer, the Catholic student, said she had told the conference that she hoped her peers would share her commitment to dialogue, which she believes is a natural expression of being a good neighbor, of "being loving, open-minded folks."

END

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